Waris Ahluwalia

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Photo by Luca Stoppini - L'Uomo Vogue, September 2007

Part-time actor, jewelry designer, party-goer and globetrotter: a true masculine icon for the 21st Century

It's not just the turban the makes Waris Ahluwalia's look so iconic; nor is it his full, black beard. It's a combination of those, with his superslim suits in grey, electric blue or bordeaux with contrasting white shoes. Or his shabby-dandy scarf tied around his neck, or his all-denim looks in which he mixes light and dark.

While his name is difficult to remember, Waris Ahluwalia's face is impossible to forget. He's become an iconic actor for supercool indie directors like Wes Anderson, for whom Waris played the imperturbable head steward of the Darjeeling Limited, and before that, the part Vikram Ray, the Sikh cameraman of Team Zissou in the Life Aquatic. Waris has also appeared in Spike Lee's Inside Man and I Am Love by Luca Guadagnino. Born in 1975, in the city of Amritsar in the Indian state of Punjab, he moved to Brooklyn at the age of five with his parents, who were both university professors.

He calls himself a "part-time actor", as the other part of his time is dedicated to designing jewelry for his House of Waris line. His pieces are made my craftspeople in India and Rome and are carried in the world's most exclusive boutiques. Under the same name, Waris has also opened a tea room in New York.

His icon status is not only thanks to his style (he was number 15 on Vanity Fair's Best-Dressed List in 2010), but to his vast and varied social connections. He's a definitive example of the modern-day jet-setter, and has been fixture on New York's coolest nightlife scene since he was a teenager. It's the social scene that's allowed him to solidify he's most important relationships.

Besides Wes Anderson, his close circle of friends include Chiara Clemente, the street artist André and Paul Sevigny, Chloë's brother, as well as the owner of the Beatrice Inn, the restaurant in the Village, a gathering point for the art and fashion worlds and according to New York Magazine, "the hippest place in town". If you're looking for Waris, that's where you should hang out.